Acts announced for Wexford's Heritage Festival

Details have been announced of a music and literary festival set to take place at the National Heritage Park in Wexford on Saturday, June 30.

Billed as The Heritage Festival, the event will feature top national musicians like John Spillane, Jerry Fish, Mick Flannery, Duke Special and Declan O’Rourke, alongside local acts The Man Whom, Alan Byrne and others. As all of performers will use acoustic instruments, the event has already been dubbed “the Acoustic Picnic”.

The literary aspect of The Heritage Festival will include readings by such key literary figures as Billy Roche, John Banville, Colm Toibin and former Hot Press scribe Peter Murphy.

Admission will be an all-inclusive €20 which will entitle fans to see all of the events which will take place at various intimate settings around the Heritage Park. The venue is close to the picturesque River Slaney at Ferrycarrig Bridge and a short distance from Wexford Town, and shuttle bus service will be laid on to transport fans to the site.

According to the event’s organiser Barry Ennis, who has already promoted hugely successful events at The Set Theatre in Kilkenny and at St Iberius Church in Wexford town, “The response to The Heritage Festival has been overwhelmingly positive, especially from musicians, literary figures, local authorities, the music industry, and local and national media. The Heritage Park makes an ideal setting for such an informal event, with its pre-historic buildings overlooking the broad expanse of the Slaney River. The festival is already shaping up to become an annual event, and a key part of Wexford’s arts calendar.”

More artists are expected to be added to The Heritage Festival in due course.